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But it matters little. What he has accomplished in his nine years in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøis irrelevant to many as it has come without any significant playoff success. No one knows that more than Marner and that’s why fans can expect to watch him walk out the door July 1 when free agency opens.

He’ll leave the franchise as underappreciated as when he arrived.

When the Leafs drafted Marner with the fourth pick in 2015, then head coach Mike Babcock certainly didn’t envision him becoming the fastest to reach 700 points in franchise history. At the time all he saw was how a big strapping defenceman, Noah Hanifin, slipped through his draft hands and into the lap of the Carolina Hurricanes with the very next pick.

It was Mark Hunter’s draft and, as the Leafs’ director of player personnel at the time, he was granted final say. While Hunter, the co-owner of the London Knights team with whom Marner played his junior hockey, often referred to him as “special,” Babcock only saw a small player who took the place of a six-foot-three stud blueliner. And so began the uphill battle within management, with Marner caught in the middle.

Like any spoiled child who doesn’t get his way, Babcock pouted and took it out on Marner, often referring to him as Mouse in front of his teammates, according to multiple sources. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that sort of open ridicule eventually erodes everyone in the room. Apparently Babcock didn’t care.

The tipping point, of course, came when Babcock forced Marner, and only Marner, to rank his teammates in order of their work ethic and then showed the list to the players who ranked lowest (he put himself last). Still, Marner took his lumps, being relegated to third- and fourth-line duties, but he managed to put up 224 points during his three-year, entry-level deal despite all of Babcock’s demeaning attempts at sabotaging one of the top players he was supposed to be nurturing and developing.

So if people wonder why I like this player so much, it’s because of what he needlessly had to endure early in his NHL career. He’s the underdog who overachieved.

The poor treatment gave Marner the determination to fight for his second contract in 2019 when the Leafs made a catastrophic error in judgment by underestimating his production and value. The offer of $6 million (U.S.) a year for the maximum eight years was undervalued for his point production, so it was easily rejected, and his team chose to wait for Auston Matthews, also due for a bridge deal, to re-sign first.Ìý

But it was the John Tavares free-agent contract — the seven-year, $77-million megadeal negotiated by former general manager Kyle Dubas — that caused the team’s salary-cap chaos and raised the price for those that followed: first Matthews, then Marner. That put the cap balance out of whack and the Leafs have never recovered.

As we are all painfully aware, the miscalculation to not bump the offer to $7.5 million or $8 million annually for Marner’s eight-year bridge deal (which many believe could have gotten the deal done, even before Matthews’ extension was finalized) was a miscalculation of epic proportions. Can you imagine how differently things may have looked today if it had come together? Marner would have been under contract for two more seasons with an incredible cap-friendly contract.

Instead, the green Dubas focused on the big splash, setting a new bar with Tavares at $11 million a season and Matthews several months later at $11.3 million and it instantaneously drove Marner’s asking price to almost double what they originally wanted to pay.Ìý

There’s no disputing the facts — the Leafs are 2-9 in playoff series in the Matthews-Marner era and have gone winless in the six Game 7s they’ve played (and let’s not forget the winner-take-all Game 5 against Columbus in 2020). The latest lopsided loss against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers — as unfathomable as it was ugly — was going to get pinned on someone and Marner is as easy a target as any.Ìý

Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, with a contract set to expire and the New York Islanders reportedly knocking on his door, will be most remembered as the man who could not recognize that his Core Four was not the cohesive unit he wanted it to be. Management and players can speak all they want off the ice regarding how close and tight and caring they all are, but it’s not what we witnessed on the ice when it mattered most. At times they looked and acted as if every man was for himself.

This band so desperately needed to break up and not one of the decision makers saw it or chose to admit it — or was able to do anything about it before it was too late and contract movement anchors kicked in. And last summer when there was no firm indication Marner would sign an extension, the Leafs could have played hardball and tried to push their star into offering up a handful of destinations he would waive his no-trade clause for. Instead they chose to play it out, hope and pray their playoff demons would be exorcized and maybe, just maybe, he would stick around at their number.Ìý

And then that Game 7 happened.

History will recognize this core — Matthews, Marner, Tavares and William Nylander — as a group of incredibly talented players that couldn’t come together when it mattered most. Someone has to take responsibility for the losing and the bad chemistry among the nucleus and no one is as polarizing as Marner. His impending departure is the beginning of resolving that long-standing issue, although somewhere down the road fans will realize those points will be incredibly hard to replace. All his defensive responsibilities, too.Ìý

So what happens next? As many as 20 teams are believed to be in the running for his services and we aren’t just talking about the Anaheims and Chicagos of the world. Teams will make room any way they can for Marner; they appreciate his worth.Ìý

My guess is he’ll play this out no differently than he did nine years ago with Babcock. He will take the high road, keep his mouth shut and do his best to prove everybody wrong once again.